They made me do it….

Recent budget cuts imposed by a government (please, don’t ask me to specify as they ALL do it anyway !! Choose your scapegoat and shoot !!) resulted in a bad decision down the line.

Ok,ok…more details are required.

Recent budget cuts in education forced several schools to stop or severely reduce purchases for their diminutive libraries. After all, students already have a library with hundreds or thousands of books.

Apart from the fact that cutting in education is one of the most imbecile decision ANY government can take to amputate future generations’ potential.

Apart from the fact that knowledge is the one investment any school cannot stop making,

Apart from the facts that adding books to a library is like watering plants….

What really upset me is this comment from one of the school official who was interviewed on their decision to cut on book purchases.

« The government forced us to do this ».

yeah right….

Milgram would have had quite a laugh here !!

Remember Milgram ‘s experiment where an actor was faking his reaction to what looked to the test subject like an electroshock of progressive intensity? You might have watched the movie too!

They all said the same thing.

« They made me do it. I did not want this but… »

You know…follow the rules ! « There are procedures »…

The one thing the spineless clerk, bureaucrat or employee will always refer to when something stupid happens because there were rules, regulations, procedures, laws to respect and uphold.

The fact that these…let’s call them « guidelines » were written under different circumstances, times, of philosophy is not important. The fact that they do not make any sense now, for us, does not matter.

Rules are rules….

Right?

I like this definition :

Managers do things the right way.

Leaders…do the right things.

I also love this one :

A wise person knows when and how to deviate from the rule.

A wise person knows how and when to improvise.

A wise person is not born wise but becomes one.

Courage is a quality that too many bureaucrats lack these days. Courage to speak up. Courage to act.

Courage to ask forgiveness after the fact instead of cowardice to ask permission before acting.

Emile Durkheim was right :

« When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unforceable. »

Mores : (pronounced ˈmôrˌāz/) : the essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a community.

Part 2 - The reality of the paperless...procrastination.

Time does not exist. Don't even try to "manage" it!

Time is a mathematical expression of the 4th dimension. out of 11. Who can pretend to understand it , let alone manage it? Not all is hopeless however if you stop thinking about time and focus on priorities.